Ferdinand Adu-Baffour

Biography

Ferdinand Adu-Baffour has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Ghana and an MSc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hohenheim. For his master’s thesis, which assessed the impact of different mechanization service provision models on small scale farms in Zambia, Ferdinand gained rich practical experience working together with partners from Zambia (IAPRI) and Germany (University of Hohenheim and John Deere). He also has years of experience working in the space of agribusiness, rural development, and agriculture where he worked on USAID funded projects, in most parts of Ghana, as a data analyst and later as a monitoring and evaluation officer.

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PhD Research Project: Benefiting from extractive minerals while safeguarding the environment

Over the last decades, small scale gold mining (SSM) in Ghana has evolved from using rudimentary tools to using sophisticated earth moving equipment and hazardous chemicals. This is associated with major environmental and health concerns, as a result of the degradation and contamination of land and the environment, which serve as a source of livelihood for host mining communities. This project explores sustainable technical and institutional options to remediate degraded and contaminated mined lands for future economic use.

Publication

Adu-Baffour, F., Daum, T. and Birner, R. (2019) Can small farms benefit from big companies’ initiatives to promote mechanization in Africa? A case study from Zambia. Food Policy, 84, 133–145. doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2019.03.007